Former NBA player Chase Budinger takes his talents to beach volleyball

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Former NBA player Chase Budinger, right, has teamed with two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal, left, to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. They’ll make their debut Thursday at the FIVB Huntington Beach Open. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Former NBA player Chase Budinger has teamed with Olympian and beach volleyball star Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. The duo work together during practice in Manhattan Beach Thursday April 26, 2018 Budinger kill shot during practice game. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Sean Rosenthal, left, passes to teammate Chase Budinger during a recent practice in Manhattan Beach. Former NBA player Chase Budinger has teamed with Olympian and beach volleyball star Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

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Former NBA player Chase Budinger, pictured, has teamed with Olympian and beach volleyball star Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. The duo work together during practice in Manhattan Beach Thursday April 26, 2018. Budinger keeps ball in play during practice game.
(Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Former NBA player Chase Budinger, right, has teamed with Olympian and beach volleyball star Sean Rosenthal,left, to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Chase Budinger spikes the ball during a recent practice in Manhattan Beach. The former NBA player has teamed with Olympian and beach volleyball star Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Former NBA player Chase Budinger, right, has teamed with two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Former NBA player Chase Budinger, right, has teamed with two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Former NBA player Chase Budinger, pictured, is teaming with two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach volleyball circuit. They’re in the field at this week’s FIVB Huntington Beach Open. Main draw play begins Thursday. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Chase Budinger, right, goes high for a kill during a recent practice in Manhattan Beach. The former NBA player has teamed with two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Former NBA player Chase Budinger, right, has teamed with two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal, left, to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach circuit. They’ll make their debut Thursday at the FIVB Huntington Beach Open. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

Sean Rosenthal dives for a save during a recent practice with new partner Chase Budinger in Manhattan Beach. Budinger, a former NBA player, has joined the two-time Olympian to form one of the most athletic tandems on the beach volleyball circuit. (Photo by Robert Casillas, Contributing Photographer)

MANHATTAN BEACH — The three volleyball courts that anchor the northern edge of Moonlight State Beach in Encinitas are, officially, welcome to all comers. Players of all skill levels arrive daily to dig their toes into the white sand. Among locals, however, it is understood that the third court, the one closest to the surf, is reserved for the most advanced players.

On weekends more than a decade ago, one impossibly blond native son made regular trips to that cozy stretch of beach, trudged past the first two courts and scrawled his name on the waiting list for that cutthroat third court. With that, Chase Budinger put himself at the mercy of the hard-core locals with leathered skin, in a game where skill and finesse meant more than size and physicality

“Mostly they would beat me,” said Budinger, “but sometimes I would go down there with my brother and we would run the table for the day.”

To the teen, volleyball was a social activity. The sand offered a diversion from sanctioned sports at La Costa Canyon High School, where he became a decorated two-sport star, winning national player of the year in indoor volleyball and emerging as a top basketball recruit.

On Thursday, the 29-year-old who spent seven seasons in the NBA, will make his pro volleyball debut next to two-time Olympian Sean Rosenthal as main draw play begins at the FIVB Huntington Beach Open. For the new and, perhaps, unlikely partners, it marks the first step toward their goal of the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

“I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of people who are going to write him off as the basketball guy who is dabbling in beach volleyball,” said 7-foot-1 pro Ryan Doherty, who left a career in baseball after topping out in Double-A in 2007, “but once he starts playing I think that perception will change pretty quickly.”

When Budinger was waived by the Brooklyn Nets during training camp in 2016, it quietly but effectively ended his NBA career. He had appeared in 407 games with four teams, earned nearly $19 million and jumped over P. Diddy in the Slam Dunk Contest.

The 6-foot-7 small forward never announced his retirement from the NBA and doesn’t recall filling out any paperwork that made it official, but one day the insurance card for retired players arrived in the mail and so he was retired.

Budinger toiled for one season with Baskonia in the Spanish ACB. “I didn’t really enjoy my time too much over there,” he said. He said the time zone messed with him and the grind of international living was a shock after years of NBA travel.

Meanwhile, Rosenthal, a fan favorite with a loyal cheering section called Rosie’s Raiders, was at home in Southern California contemplating how to make one more run at the Olympics.

He had teamed with former gold medalist Phil Dalhausser after the 2012 Games, only to get dumped prior to Rio de Janeiro in ’16. Now 37, Rosenthal knew the volleyball landscape was shifting and his window was closing. He might have to get creative if he wanted to make it to Tokyo with as many as six teams contending for two American slots.

Friends were in his ears about the former NBA player who spent his summers in Hermosa Beach playing four-on-four tournaments. Rosenthal, who lives in Redondo Beach, had been around Budinger in that setting, but never considered his potential as a partner.

“We have a lot of mutual friends,” Rosenthal said, “and all of them are like, ‘He sets perfect, he does this, he does that,’ and I was like, ‘OK, I’ve never seen that part.’ … I’ve seen him mess around in four-mans a little bit, four-mans all he’s doing is hitting and blocking, I know he can do that. He’s a big guy.”

Rosenthal reached out to Budinger, who was mulling offers to go back overseas. A couple of NBA tryouts had gone nowhere. If Budinger was serious about giving volleyball a real shot, this was about as good of an opportunity as would ever come.

As Doherty put it: “Rosie is not going to pick anybody to play with where he’s not going to be able to win.”

All that was left was for Budinger to accept, and that meant coming to terms with the end of his basketball career.

“I think it was just the right time for me and just how I felt,” Budinger said. “I had a lot of good years, had a good run in basketball and this was always the plan when I was done, was to go back and play beach volleyball, so at least I had that mindset.”

Budinger is far from the first NBA player to find a second home on the beach. Wilt Chamberlain famously spent more than a decade on the pro volleyball circuit following his Hall of Fame career, and in Hermosa, Budinger plays regularly with fellow Arizona Wildcats Luke Walton and Richard Jefferson.

During Kobe Bryant’s farewell season in 2015-16, the legendary Laker pulled aside Budinger, then with the Indiana Pacers, and joked that retirement meant he had some free time coming up.

“When you have time let’s go to the beach and play some beach volleyball,” Bryant said.

“I have not taken him up on it yet, though,” Budinger said.

One week before the Huntington tournament, Budinger and Rosenthal were on the sand at 15th Street in Manhattan Beach, working the kinks out of their new partnership.

Sitting on a blanket next to the boundary of the court, Fine softly repeated the message she has told her boyfriend virtually every day since he decided to accept Rosenthal’s offer.

“Think less, just play,” the former UCLA libero said.

Rosenthal and Budinger spoke softly following each play throughout their scrimmage against the Brazilian team of Guto Carvalhaes and Vitor Felipe, assessing what worked and what did not.

“We’re still learning and I’m still in that process of asking a lot of questions,” Budinger said.

The 6-3 Rosenthal patiently tutored Budinger about the arc he needed from his partner when setting him the ball. “More of this,” he said, pointing straight up to the sky. Then, bending the arm over his head, “Not so much of this.”

The stonefaced Brazilians, meanwhile, barely spoke, responding to each other’s movements and communicating by feel.

But when Rosenthal sent a pass high to Budinger, the full scale of the newcomer’s power was on display. Budinger swung his arms back like a long jumper pushing off, then pogo-sticked off the sand, and slammed the ball over the net.

Carvalhaes dove for the dig but was not fast enough. He slapped the sand and swore loudly in Portuguese.

Budinger’s power is his trademark.

“His athleticism is most impressive,” said Tyler Hildebrand, the first-year director of coaching for the USA Volleyball beach teams. “He needs a lot of touches passing and setting, but the fact is, he’s so good at both of those right now. Because typically when you get a super big, super freak (athlete), usually they don’t know how to pass or set.”

But he’s new. And he will spend the summer playing in tournaments across the globe against players who have years of experience. From Huntington Beach, it’s on to Lucerne, Switzerland, and then Austin, Texas.

In beach volleyball, players lug their own balls, arrange their own practices, set up their own lines.

While Budinger has completely closed the door on his basketball career, much of what made him an attractive NBA player carries over to the sand. The length and athleticism. His timing. NBA teams kept calling because they believed in his potential.

Over time, that wears off. Younger players come along who do similar things, for less money and with more upside. Teams are always looking to buy low, to find the bargain with the biggest payoff.

Rosenthal knows all about that. Maybe pairing with Budinger costs him tour points early on, but if the goal is the Olympics – and it is – then the 6-7 leaper opens a new world of opportunity.

The book on Budinger might have been written in the NBA, but in beach volleyball, the pages are completely blank. Here, his potential is the mystery, his upside the draw.

Bill Oram covers the Los Angeles Lakers for the Southern California News Group. He covered the Utah Jazz for the Salt Lake Tribune. He is the (usually) bearded guy in the background wearing a University of Montana hat.

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